This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Network living broadcasting is a technique on basis of Internet communications for playing streaming media programs (e.g. television programs, radio programs, films and so on) to users in real time. As network transmission techniques and streaming media techniques grow more and more mature, living broadcasting steaming media services provided through high-speed Internet become more and more popular, and large amount of network living broadcasting systems appear, e.g., PPLive, MySee and PPStream, etc. Three parties, i.e., streaming media content providers, network living broadcasting operators and network living broadcasting clients, form the main part of a network broadcasting system.
Before playing a program, a network living broadcasting client needs to retrieve streaming media data from the Internet. After the amount of streaming media data received reaches a pre-determined quantity, the network living broadcasting client triggers to play the program and displays the program to a user. The time from the network living broadcasting client begins to retrieving the streaming media data till the network living broadcasting client triggers to play the program is called buffering time. All the network living broadcasting clients need the buffering time before playing the program. The only different is that the buffering time may be longer or shorter. The buffering time is used for accumulating the streaming media data to ensure the continuity of the program in case of network fluctuation. In the related art, the buffering time is processed in different manners. Hereinafter, the different processing are respectively described.
At present, most network living broadcasting systems do nothing during the buffering time. Specifically, a living broadcast displaying area of the network living broadcasting client is blank during the buffering time. Under the living broadcasting displaying area, prompt information is displayed such as “connecting”, percentage of the buffering process, “receiving data”, “playing soon”, etc. After the buffering process, the blank screen will be replaced with a program screen. This manner has the following disadvantages: since the user is eager to watch the program, he/she may focus on the living broadcasting displaying area and the prompt information during the buffering time. The blank screen may make the user upset, and the precious time when the user is focusing on the screen is wasted.
Still some other network living broadcasting systems at present displays pre-configured materials during the buffering time. The pre-configured materials, such as pictures, cartoons, etc., are installed when the network living broadcasting client is installed. The living broadcasting displaying area of the network living broadcasting client displays the pre-configured materials during the buffering time. This manner can distract the user's attention while the user is waiting and alleviate unhappy feelings. But since the materials were installed when the network living broadcasting client was installed and the materials displayed by the network living broadcasting client are the same each time, the user will still become tired of the materials. Furthermore, the materials displayed in the precious time do not provide any useful information to the user. Thus the buffering time is also not fully used.